The city of Patras is located in Peloponnese, western part of Greece, about 210 km west of Athens.

The city used to be the main port of Greece before the Corinth canal was opened (1893). Now it's the port from which ferries mainly depart to Italy (Ancona, Brindisi) and it is a lively college city with population around 250.000 in the city and approximately 400.000 in the metro area. It is currently the third largest city in Greece.

Patras is also known for its carnival of which the first ball was held in 1829. Now it is a major event that attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists and tens of thousands of group members.

The colleges play a significant role to the economy and night life of Patras. One of them is the University of Patras with about 30.000 undergrad and graduate students and the Technological Institute of Patras, a college of 10.000-12.000 students. The first one is built on the foot of a mountain and overlooks the recently completed Rion-Antirrion bridge.

This city also hosted preliminary soccer games during the Olympic tournament.
Overall I think it is a very nice place to stay, more quiet than Athens and Thessaloniki but still with interesting things to do.

The port of Patra is one of the main gateways to Europe with direct links to Italian cities like Brintizi and Angona. Also, with the extension of the speed suburban rail to Korinthos, the rail trip to Patra will be much faster than it used to be some five years ago.

One of the main attractions of Patra is, if course, the Rion Antirrion bridge which is the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world. Also, Patra was the first city outside the Athens Metro Area to host a big shopping centre - multiplex cinema complex with the famous- Veso Mare (I really would like to see pictures of this one). Overall it is a lively city, also thanks to the university. One of the schools of the iniversity which is worth mentioning is the School of Comouter Science and Engineering, which is one of the best in the Mediterranean, along with the Institute of Informatics in Crete.